Saudi Ministry of Education signs Cisco training deal

10 Saudi high schools will implement Cisco's Networking Academies Program as the result of an agreement with the Saudi Ministry of Education.

The Saudi Ministry of Education has signed an agreement with Cisco Systems which will see the ministry include the networking company's Networking Academies Program in its curriculum. The programme will be implemented in 10 high schools, which are yet to be named, in addition to Cisco undertaking to train two instructors nominated by the Saudi Computer Society at its training facility in the UK.

In the first phase of the programme, these two instructors will be trained to become, in turn, trainers of computer teachers around the kingdom. The agreement comes at a time when the Ministry of Education is promoting new technology in high school teaching through a project called “Ta’hil.”

“Cisco Systems has given educational programmes significant attention, with a vision of skills transfer which can now be implemented in universities and scientific institutions,” said Dr Marwan Al Ahmadi, Cisco Systems Saudi Arabia’s country manager. “Cisco is helping form a new generation of Saudi computer professionals, who will in their turn, train future generations, as technology becomes an integral part of living in a rapidly changing world. This Cisco Networking Academies programme has already been implemented across 113 countries, with over 181000 students currently engaged in it. The success of this programme is clear.”

The Cisco Networking Academies Programme course material is being translated into Arabic, in order to minimise difficulties for students.